Website speed has become a critical issue in recent years: surfers today are accustomed to sites that go up in the blink of an eye, and if they wait more than a few seconds for the site in front of them to bother appearing, they will usually abandon it and look for another site. Google knows this too, so it may show faster sites at the top of search results, so even if you have a great site, it’s not sure users will be able to find it easily.

HOW to Build a fast website in WordPress without much effort

HOW to Build a fast website in WordPress without much effort One of the reasons that makes WordPress the most popular content management system today is that despite the many things it can do and the impressive list of features it supports, it is still fast enough so that it can compete with even the fastest sites that have been specially optimized. Of course it depends on the quality of the code, the template, the image weights that the site owner uploads and more, but the basic infrastructure of WordPress is light and fast enough. Also, WordPress has some tricks that can be used to ensure that the system stays fast even after the site is upgraded and developed. So how do you do that without spending hours upon hours? Here are some tips:

Choose a good web hosting company

First of all it is important to choose a good web hosting company , whether it is a simple site that can settle for hosting WordPress sites that share resources with other sites (so-called shared hosting) or whether it is a more complex and demanding site that usually requires a virtual server. True, you can find very cheap servers today, but usually this price is reflected in servers with insufficient resources, which means that if one site is very wasteful in resources, all the other sites suffer from a decline in performance as well. Another thing that is important to know and not always put the emphasis on is that the server must include updated versions of the components installed on it such as PHP. The reason is that large parts of the WordPress extensions (which we will talk about later) will not work without the latest versions.

Take care of a light template that is adapted to mobile

The marketplace of WordPress templates is divided (largely) into simple templates and complex templates. The simple templates are templates that are distributed for free and sometimes even found within certain WordPress installations. These are great templates for those who want to set up a simple blog, but more advanced sites already require complex templates that can be customized. Apart from choosing a template , it is also important that the template be fast and easy to use even for those who do not develop. Most templates allow this to be done by eliminating its required parts. In addition, today most of the templates are responsive, which means that the site will also be well displayed from smartphones or mid-range devices , tablets and more.

Additives

Extensions are extensions that allow you to add various features to WordPress. There are plugins that do add some functionality to the site, but cause its heaviness and slowdown. In contrast, there are a number of plugins that have the ability to improve the way WordPress works and thus speed up the display of pages on certain devices or for users who have already visited it in the past. The plugins we will talk about fall into several categories: Images, Cache, AMP and Code Optimizer.

Photos

Image Shrink Extensions are plugins that optimize images even if we have not optimized them beforehand with appropriate software. This optimization ensures that they do not exceed the current size of images (usually up to 150KB), and usually without sacrificing image quality. Example of such extensions: Imagify, ShortPixel

Cache plugins

Cache extensions  are functions that store files on the surfer’s personal computer or on the server: Usually, when the site presents you with a page, this page is processed early on the server to display the appropriate content. At the same time, many of these pages do not change, so there is no point in performing this process over and over again. Therefore, if the server sends the code of the page as it is, the process is much faster.

AMP

AMP is a technology of Google, which is basically a code format designed for mobile and allows you to create “thinner” and lighter pages without sacrificing the important features of websites such as videos and images. Assuming your site does not contain interactive apps or heavy animations, you will most likely be able to convert it to AMP. This technology is still in its infancy, but in the not too distant future we will probably soon see super fast and complex sites that contain various elements beyond articles and blogs. Since this is an open format, there are many plugins that allow you to get the job done. Recommended plugins: AMP for WP, AMP (Automattic). Because the format is constantly changing and expanding, it is important to note that you always have the latest version (something that should be done for all plugins through the WordPress plugins screen).

Code optimization

Code optimization usually involves compressing external files (each call to an external server slows down the page) or moving code snippets to the end, causing the page itself to appear faster. At first You will probably only have a few plugins on the server, but many sites start small and grow very large afterwards. A lot of website owners install a new plugin every time they want to improve the site, at the expense of its speed. Therefore, you should always check if you really need another plugin, or maybe you can find plugins that combine several features together. Sometimes pro versions of existing plugins are offered with features found in other plugins.